


we never painted by the numbers

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Episode: s05e13 Basic Sandwich, Post-Season 5, that's it that's the au, they got married because they're in love!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:34:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: “When we were trapped in that bunker, how did you unlock the door? What did you do when we all turned around?” she asked. It was a question that had been weighing on her mind for a while, but she hadn’t yet found the right time to ask.Jeff sighed, casting his gaze downwards. One of his hands came up from Britta’s waist to delicately brush a lock of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t really plan on sharing that with anyone,” he said.“Jeff,” Britta murmured, tapping his chin to get him to look up at her, “we’re married. I promise, no answer could be embarrassing enough to get rid of me,” she said with a soft laugh.Set post-season 5, AU where Jeff and Britta got married.
Relationships: Britta Perry/Jeff Winger
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	we never painted by the numbers

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while listening to Folklore and after seeing [ this](https://boberly.tumblr.com/post/94283548239/lets-imagine-that-season-five-ended-like-this) post!! just so everyone knows what kind of headspace I was in. hope you all enjoy! <3

“Hey, Jeff?”

“Yes, Britts?”

Britta turned onto her side, doing her best to keep herself wrapped up in Jeff’s arms as she did so. Their faces landed only a few centimeters apart, close enough that she could feel their breath mingling in the space between them. 

“When we were trapped in that bunker, how did you unlock the door? What did you do when we all turned around?” she asked. It was a question that had been weighing on her mind for a while, but she hadn’t yet found the right time to ask. 

Jeff sighed, casting his gaze downwards. One of his hands came up from Britta’s waist to delicately brush a lock of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t really plan on sharing that with anyone,” he said. 

“Jeff,” Britta murmured, tapping his chin to get him to look up at her, “we’re married. I promise, no answer could be embarrassing enough to get rid of me,” she said with a soft laugh.

He smiled, rubbing his thumb against her temple. “It’s not embarrassing, per se. I’m just…not used to talking about this sort of thing.”

Britta tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. “Talking about what sort of thing?”

“Well…” Jeff stopped stroking her face and brought his hand to rest on the middle of her back, “Feelings. Emotions. Mushy-gushy stuff. You know that pretty damn well, at this point.”

“Well, yeah. But you’ve gotten better at it! Your vows were what I would consider to be pretty mushy-gushy,” Britta said, half-teasing. She ducked her head against his chest, allowing him to loop an arm around her shoulders and pull her closer. She also hoped that he might be able to open up a little more if he didn’t have to look directly at her. 

“I’ll admit, they were,” he said, cracking a smile, “but you went first, so it was…easier to open up.”

“Are you saying that if I share something mushy first, you might be able to answer my question?”

Jeff did his best to shrug while in his current position. “Maybe it would help.”

Britta turned over to lie on her stomach so that she could look her husband in the eye, propping herself up by crossing her arms on his chest. “Okay. Did I ever tell you about when I _first_ realized that I had feelings for you?” she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t during paintball?”

His wife laughed. “No, it was an embarrassing amount of time before that. It was at my tap recital,” she said.

“Wait, really?! That’s the day that I started officially dating…oh.”

Britta bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. Oh,” she said with a chuckle, “I was ready to water the last flower. All I had to do was tip myself over and I’d be done. But I looked out into the crowd and saw you. With her. Holding her hand. And you were stroking it with your thumb, like it wasn’t an afterthought. You made the conscious decision to hold her hand. And it freaked me out because I’d convinced myself that you two were just a casual sort of thing. It’s gross, but in the back of mind, I thought she was just a distraction since you couldn’t have me.”

“I mean, in all fairness, she kind of was,” Jeff said.

The blonde stuffed down the swell of pride she felt at that admission and did her best to continue on. “Well, anyway…that’s why I froze. I was just absolutely mortified to realize that I was actually jealous of her. That deep down, I wanted to be the girl whose hand you were holding,” she said, pausing for a moment, “And when you were the only one who gave me flowers afterwards…that didn’t help. I went home for the night, put them in a vase…then I went straight for the Ben & Jerry’s and just cried,” she added with a laugh. “I got stuck in this loop where I was sad about you and then mad at myself for being sad and then mad at Slater for stealing you away and then upset that I had been too proud to admit that I liked you and so on and so on,” Britta explained, tracing a circle in the air with her finger.

Jeff smiled gently, leaning forward to press a light kiss to the tip of her nose. “You don’t have to worry about feeling like that ever again,” he said simply, mouth relaxing into a gentle smile. His eyes were glassier than usual, telling Britta all she needed to know about how her confession had affected him. 

“I’m not,” she replied with an equally soft smile.

Her husband took a deep breath, letting one hand drift idly down to the small of her back. “Okay. So the door.”

Britta nodded encouragingly, laying her arms down and resting her head on his chest.

“We needed a blast of human passion, right? So I had you all line up and turn around, you know that part. And then I just…looked at all of you,” Jeff explained.

“You looked at all of us?” Britta asked in a flat tone.

He chuckled. “Yeah. But it was more than that. I looked at you all and I heard something that each of you had said to me before,” he elaborated.

“And what did you hear us say?” she asked softly. 

“I heard the Dean asking me if I was there to save him, on my first day back after we’d graduated. I heard Abed ask if he could give me options for voiceover lines in case I ever needed to remember him in an emotional montage. And I heard Annie and I calling each other milady and milord.”

Britta inched closer to him, her lips hovering next to his ear. “And what about me?”

Feeling her warm breath against his neck sent a shiver down Jeff’s spine. “I heard what you said to me after we kissed in the study room. That it felt right to get out of Greendale and never look back. Together.” 

Britta gave a sort of smile that Jeff wasn’t sure he’d seen her give before. “Really? I’m surprised you didn’t hear me saying the word ‘baggle’,” she joked, poking him lightly in the side.

“I was just as surprised as you are,” he said with a laugh, “But I guess I just really love you. Or something like that.”

His wife shifted so that she was completely on top of him, leaning down to give him a long, slow, and tender kiss. 

“I’d hope that it’s something like that. This would be pretty awkward if it wasn’t,” she said with a near blissful smile.

“It would be, wouldn’t it?” Jeff teased, “Good thing I **do** love you. Enough to unlock a door that’s opened by a blast of human passion.”

Britta shifted again so that she was lying next to her husband once more, still caught in his embrace. She brought her arms to rest on top of his, tracing small circles on his skin once she was settled.

“Though it hasn’t been tested, I think I love you enough to be able to do that, too,” she said.

Jeff cupped his wife’s chin and brought her in for another kiss, this one shorter, but with just as much, if not more, passion. 

“Not to be presumptuous, but I know you do,” he said, letting his forehead rest against hers. Their eyes stayed closed as they nuzzled against one another, knowing that they would have this comfort in each other for the rest of their lives. They didn’t need blasts of human passion like the bunker door did. All they needed were these gentle, never-ending waves. And they would be content.

**Author's Note:**

> I loved writing "his wife" and "her husband" oh so much. 
> 
> as always, please leave a comment any thoughts/opinions/etc. you may have! I hope you all enjoyed and hope you're doing well. <3


End file.
